Still too soon for Knight

After last year's Knight riots, one thought kept churning over and over in my head: This is the stupidest thing I have ever seen.\nAngry shouts mixed with carefree laughter as thousands of students trampled over the garden in front of Bryan House, muddied the waters of Showalter Fountain and marched across campus toward a police-lined Assembly Hall. \nI strongly support free speech and peaceful, respectful protest. But the Knight riots were senseless and destructive. \n And I applaud the University and former coach Bob Knight for not wanting to risk such unrest, immaturity and destruction at IU again. By canceling the IU/Texas Tech game this year, both universities are giving the campus community time to heal.\n It's only one year later. Emotions are still running high. It's too soon for IU to face Texas Tech and the former coach who still inspires strong feelings and loyalties on campus.\n There is nothing wrong with having loyalty to Mr. Knight. Despite his mistakes and errors in judgement, he was an effective, successful coach who loved IU and Bloomington. \n What is wrong is that some of us choose to "support" Mr. Knight with violence and destruction.\nEven at Midnight Madness, a celebration of our men's and women's basketball teams, I heard cries of "We want Knight. We want Knight." This disrespect and ingratitude after a successful season and strong leadership by head coach Mike Davis is ridiculous. \nThe immature, unwarranted actions by some students in last year's riots and at this year's Midnight Madness show that, even if the coaches and teams are ready to face off, not all of our fans are. This is unfortunate and unfair to those of us who can express our displeasure at the Knight firing in a mature and respectful manner.\nBut at the end of the day, a basketball game is not worth the risk of more unrest at this University.